The number of pixels of a solid-state image sensing element used in an electronic camera such as a digital camera is at least 1,500,000 to 3,000,000 at maximum. The number of pixels tends to increase. The number of pixels of a liquid crystal monitor attached to the electronic camera is 60,000 to 100,000 at most.
To use the liquid crystal monitor having a small number of pixels as a viewfinder, a focus state at a precision necessary for recording or printout cannot be confirmed. An out-of-focus state is recognized only when an image sensed by the electronic camera is displayed on the screen of a personal computer or printed out by a printer.
From this, there is proposed an image sensing apparatus which generates two types of images from a sensed image, simultaneously displays the two images on the display screen, and allows confirming at a high precision the focus state of an actually sensed image while displaying the whole screen, as disclosed in, e.g., Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 11-341331.
In such conventional camera apparatus, exposure control during display is performed by so-called average photometry in which the entire sensed image is averaged. In this case, an image for displaying a focus state does not always have appropriate brightness.
For example, if an image for displaying a focus state exceeds the appropriate brightness, the user cannot confirm a focus state at a high precision.
When two images are simultaneously displayed on the display screen, the whole screen display becomes bright depending on an object to be sensed, and it is difficult to concentrate on an image for displaying a focus state.